L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, JUNE 13, 2019 www.italoamericano.org 10 L'Italo-Americano W hen most young boys are shooting hoops or playing catch with their fathers, Ray Boom Boom Mancini stepped into a boxing gym and promised his dad, "One day I'm going to be champion." As a child, Ray rou- tinely perused his father Lenny Mancini's scrap book of newspa- per articles about his bouts in the 1930s and 1940s and carefully read and reread the aged newsprint. Little Ray was con- sumed with his dad's early career that abruptly ended as a result of a serious wound incurred during World War II, which earned him a Purple Heart. In many ways the Youngstown, Ohio, champ lived in his father's shadows so much that he even took on an unthinkable aspect of Lenny's identity, his nickname. Typical- ly, one of the many characteris- tics that separate most father and son athletes from the same sport — or any profession — is their use of nicknames; and yet the Boom Boom moniker embodies the core of Lenny and Ray Mancini's perennial connection. Receiving a nickname is what separates us from one another. Appellations are more reflective of our individuality than our offi- cial names and are unique to a person's physical attributes, per- sonality or reputation. Even identical twins usually have dif- ferent sobriquets. It is rare, almost unheard of, for a son to inherit the exact moniker as his father, and that is what happened with Ray. This, for example, does not mean Big Paulie and Little Paulie or Bobby Sr. and Bobby Jr. Former heavyweight champion and entrepreneur George Foreman has five sons all named George. One of his sons, George III, was given his father's moniker Monkey, although it was abbreviated to Monk. As George III explained in 2018 to Boston Globe reporter Olivia Vanni, "Monkey is my father's nickname, given to him by his brothers and sisters but my aunt said we can't have two mon- keys so it just became Monk for short." The Boom Boom nickname is not exclusive to the pugilist pair. Bernie Geoffrion, a professional hockey player for the Montreal Canadians, was known as Boom Boom, just as New York Mets pitcher Mark Boom Boom Bom- back. Professional golfer Fred Couples is known as Boom Boom for his accurate teeing off ability. Then there was the German ten- nis player Boris Becker, given the sobriquet Boom Boom for his ferocious serves and returns dur- ing Grand Slam matches. Around the same time of Beck- er's ascent, Ray Mancini was scheduled to fight Kenny Bang Bang Bogner in 1983, but broke his collarbone and the public missed out on the marketability of Boom Boom versus Bang Bang. "The Boom Boom nick- name is very much part of my identity" Ray said. "I have been Boom Boom ever since I can remember. In fact in Youngstown most people do not know my first name they call me by my nick- name." In recent articles about Ray Mancini, Lenny, who passed away in 2003, is referred as the original Boom. Furthermore, while growing-up Ray's friends called his mother Ellen Mrs. Boom and his youngest son Ray Ray entered a few amateur bouts as Little Boom. He is also associ- ated with Boom Boom Bourbon, which won a bronze medal at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition in 2019. "Even when I go to Italy they call me Boom Boom," said Ray. A boxing promoter gave the nickname Boom Boom to Lenny Mancini in the late 1930s. In Mark Kriegel's The Good Son: The Life of Boom Boom Manci- ni, he writes, "Boom, Boom Mancini was [Max] Joss's idea. It was alliterative, catchy and con- gruent with the style of a fighter the newspapers were now calling the broad shouldered little Ital- ian." In old newspaper articles Lenny's nickname, as well as his ethnicity, was published often. Lenny's father Nicola Manci- no emigrated from Bagheria, Sicily, and his American born mother Annie Cannazzaro's family hailed from the same vil- lage. Mancino, which means left- handed in Italian, was changed to Mancini for, once again, promot- ers thought that Lenny's name needed to sound catchier. For the American born Lenny the slight name change from one vowel to another was harmless, consider- ing some name changes com- pletely transformed one's ethnic identity. Lenny, a very proud Italo American (as well as Ray) took more of a stance against the alteration of his distinctive moniker. In 1945 United Press sports writer Jack Cuddy suggested to Lenny upon his comeback into the ring from World War II the possibility of a moniker change to Triple Boom, or Boom Boom Boom. In a newspaper article titled Lenny Mancini Frowns on Suggestions Ring Nickname be Changed, Cuddy wrote, "Manci- ni, top lightweight contender when he entered the war in 1941, objects to the idea of the third Boom given to him by the Ger- mans last November 10 during fierce fighting in Metz, France." The article explained how Lenny was struck by a German mortar shell that seriously injured him and forced the promising boxer to remain in the hospital for several months. The idea of a moniker change went no further among sports writers and, thereafter, the five-foot three-inch pugilist never fully recovered from his war injuries, which forced him to retire from boxing. Ray, touched by his father's heroic story, had an unbounding determination to achieve what his dad was unable to accomplish from the war injury, a chance at a title fight. The bond between Lenny and his son was undeni- able and expressed in Ray's poem I Walk in Your Shadow, written in 1976 for his dad on Father's Day, prior to him turning pro in 1978. In the last stanza Ray writes, "I love you dad and I really want you to know, I wanna be like you and walk in your shadow. I wanna be like you and live with your great name, for I am this man's son and I will never bear him shame." In 1982 Ray Mancini made his father proud and won the World Boxing Association (WBA) title. He brought the "great name" Mancini and shared moniker to a new level in boxing. Ray admired his dad and always lis- tened to the original Boom. "My father always said, Raymond have passion in what you do and everyone likes a stand-up guy who has character, and I try to live by his words every day," said the almost fifty-eight year old retired champ. The Mancini duo may be the only, or at least one of the few, to share the same moniker from the same sport: perhaps a trivial point some would say, but one that truly sets them apart from most fathers and sons. ALFONSO GUERRIERO JR. Ray Boom Boom Mancini followed his father's footsteps, to the point he even inherited his nickname LIFE PEOPLE MOVIES MUSIC BOOKS A B o o m B o o m c o n n e c t i o n between father and son

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